It is well known to use foam to assist in the removal of cuttings from wellbores during drilling in hydrocarbon recovery from subterranean formations. See Schramm and Gustafson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,798 and Elman, Woodward and Sullivan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,098. Foam may also be used as a workover fluid in cleaning debris from existing oil and gas wells. The foam is typically generated by the use of surfactants of various kinds together with the injection down the wellbore of air (or another gas such as nitrogen, CO.sub.2 or methane) under pressure. Responding to the agitation and pressure of the gas during drilling, the foam lifts the cuttings and/or other particulate debris up through the wellbore; the foam and the cuttings must then be separated mechanically and/or the foam/particulate mixture must be sent to a settling pond or basin, creating either an environmental problem or requiring an expensive vessel to contain the foam/particulate mixture, or both. An average drilling operation may generate one thousand cubic feet of foam per minute as it expands in the relatively low pressure of the wellhead. The presence of foam makes the job of the mechanical separator difficult; separators designed to handle large quantities of foam tend to be large and expensive, and also tend to require significant amounts of attention. Settling ponds must be lined to prevent seepage into the earth and their use is in any event environmentally undesirable; for example, the wind may blow the foam out of the ponds, carrying various chemicals with it. Accordingly, while foaming techniques for drilling employ less water than conventional mud drilling, there is a need to employ foam in a way which reduces the amount of water used, and the volume of foam, and which ameliorates the difficulties of disposal.
Materials which generate foam in water are known as surfactants, meaning that they have a tendency to migrate to the surface. The migration is caused by the fact that a portion of the surfactant molecule is hydrophobic. The other, hydrophilic, portion of the materials imparts the water-soluble character of the material. Foams are generated under mechanical agitation; their physical form represents stored mechanical energy. Without mechanical agitation, a surfactant will not form a foam. Individual foam bubbles initially tend to assume a spherical configuration, but, over time, the water and the surfactant will drain by gravity through the foam structure, thinning and weakening it; during this process the foam bubbles may change shape. It is characteristic of all foams subject to gravity that they will tend to collapse or dissipate, although some are of course more stable than others.
Zika, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,391,750, reports on studies of the effects on foam volume and foam half-life in a two-component system caused by variations in salinity of the medium, the presence of different cations in the surfactants, the optimum ethylenoxy content in his system, the number of carbons in his alkyl groups, and the extent of branching in his octyl groups. Similar surfactants are described by Kirkpatrick et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,215,200 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,155,178. See also Rogers U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,777, describing a number of effective foam formers; also Lissant U.S. Pat. No. 3,076,508.
Prior to the present invention it has been known to use amphoterics such as amine oxides in foaming agents. See Tillotson and James U.S. Pat. No. 3,303,896. Thompson, in U.S. Pat. No. Pat. No. 4,113,631, has suggested the use of certain quaternary ammonium chlorides in combination with certain amine oxides as foaming and silt suspending agents in the treatment of subterranean formations for hydrocarbon recovery. He presents data to show the foam height and half-life of various combinations within his class of surfactants, and, interestingly, in the presence of 3% or 15% hydrochloric acid. Pye et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,678 use a foaming agent comprising an amphoteric betaine, an anionic surfactant, and unneutralized ammonia to maintain a high pH in order to inhibit corrosion.
I am not aware of a system in the prior art such as mine, employing an amphoteric surfactant, in combination with an anionic or cationic surfactant, in more than one cycle, wherein pH is used to control the collapse and reformation of the foam; nor am I aware of the use of such a system for recycling of the foam; nor am I aware of such a system in which the foam may be recycled at the wellhead by alternate acid and caustic, or caustic and acid, treatment.